


Mad About the Boy

by imbrokelyn99



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: M/M, Tender moments and meditations on the meaning of timepieces, Wedding watches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-07-08 18:10:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19873894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imbrokelyn99/pseuds/imbrokelyn99
Summary: David gives Patrick a watch as a wedding present.





	Mad About the Boy

**Author's Note:**

> This was born out of my own deep love for watches and the many Discord-facilitated meltdowns I had about Patrick having big "watch wearer" energy but not wearing any watches on the show. So this is for all of you who enabled that meltdown, but it is also, lowkey, for me too. Shouts out to Claire and Turb for the pics of Noah wearing watches in other things.

“Close your eyes,” David said to his husband. Patrick obeyed, albeit reluctantly: there was no part of him that wanted to keep his eyes closed, to miss a single second of the fuzzy, morning-light beauty of David on their first day as a married couple. He heard the sheets rustle and felt the weight of David’s body on the bed next to him disappear. Something bloomed in his heart at the idea of David having planned a surprise for him, a warmth that spread from his chest and filled his every limb.

As quickly as he left, David returned. “Sit up for me, honey?” David asked. Patrick couldn’t control the smile that graced his face then and he sat up against the headboard, waiting. David climbed over his lap, straddling his thighs, and his thoughts briefly strayed to other activities that they may partake in on this lovely, sun-starched morning, but his curiosity got the best of him.

“Can I open my eyes now?” he asked. He felt David touch his lips to his, briefly, softly.

“Open them,” David whispered. 

The first thing Patrick saw when he opened his eyes was David’s face, _his husband_ ’s face, grinning and sparkling with happiness. Then they travelled down his bare torso, down his long, strong arms, to his hands, folded over in front of his boxers. In David’s hands sat an emerald green velvet watch box.

“What’s this?” Patrick asked, unable to hide his delight. He reached down and opened it to find a gorgeous-looking timepiece. It had a clean face—silver, with a guilloche dial, date window, and stark black Roman numerals—surrounded by a silver bezel. Its slim, pointed hands were a vibrant azure that matched the sapphire cabochon on the watch’s crown. On the dial of the watch, cradled by the hands positioned at ten and two, was the word _Cartier_ engraved in inky black.

“ _David_ ,” breathed Patrick, absolutely overcome.

“This is your wedding present,” David said softly. Patrick gingerly took the watch out of the box and admired it, running his fingers along the sleek, black, alligator leather strap. “I know you don’t wear watches, but I’ve always thought that you seemed like the type who would. Also this is a very French tradition and whenever I used to let myself think about marrying someone, I always imagined getting a wedding watch for them.” 

Patrick looked up at him, starry-eyed. “It’s beautiful. I love it. I’m going to wear it forever,” he said. David offered him a kind smile and kissed his cheek.

“Turn it over before you put it on,” David said. Patrick did and found clean, looping letters engraved onto the case back.  
“‘Mad About the Boy’?” Patrick asked, the grin on his face widening. “Like the Noel Coward song?” 

“Like the Noel Coward song,” David said with a nod. “I know it’s about a girl falling in love with a movie actor, but...for me...well, I’m _mad about the boy_ who got up onstage one day with an acoustic guitar and sang to me. Also, Audrey Hepburn engraved the watch she gave to her first husband Mel Ferrer with the same phrase, and I loved her in _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ and _Roman Holiday_.”

Patrick let out a watery chuckle, swallowing the comment he would have made about David loving _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ but not having seen _Casablanca_ because _of course_ David would. “I love you so much, David.” He kissed his husband, deep and sound and full of love. They broke apart after a minute, a question written into Patrick’s face. “But...hold on, this is _Cartier_. Even I know this must have cost a fortune. How could we afford this?” 

David’s mouth twisted and he ran his hands up and down Patrick’s arms. “It’s...not new. This used to be mine, actually. I know I don’t wear watches—I don’t like how they scrunch up the sleeves of my sweaters—but I bought this as a gift to myself back when I lived in New York. I had just seen _The Last Five Years_ on Broadway and one of the characters, Jamie, gives his girlfriend Cathy a watch when she’s struggling to get roles as an actress and is losing hope and sick of her life, and he tells her to _take her time_. So this was me, in a rare moment of self-care, reminding me to take _my_ time. And now it’s yours.” 

“David, this means so much to me,” Patrick whispered, brushing David’s hair away from his face and cradling the back of his husband’s head like it was something to treasure. 

“I just, um. We’re married. You _married me_. And this was one thing from the life I used to have, the person I used to be, that I still love. And I want to give you everything, Patrick. Everything that I am and everything that I used to be. It’s yours,” David whispered, his throat closing around his tears. 

“ _David_ ,” Patrick whimpered, unable to control his own tears. “I love you. Every part of you. Who you were and who you are. And you can have me, too—all of me. I’m yours. We made sure of that,” he said with a chuckle, showing off the silver ring on his left hand. 

David took Patrick’s face in his hands and brought it to his mouth, pouring all the love and promises of forever he could call forth into their searing, tender kiss. When they broke apart, seconds or minutes or hours later, David gingerly took the watch from Patrick and pulled his left wrist toward him. He slipped one end of the leather strap into the buckle and adjusted it so it fit perfectly around Patrick’s wrist before slipping the metal tongue of the buckle into the hole in the leather and tucking the loose end of the strap into the hold. Patrick smiled down at it, twisting his wrist to admire how it sat on his arm, and kissed David again.

\---

Patrick was a careful person in general, and he treated all of the things they owned and had with a charming meticulousness, but it didn’t escape David’s notice that Patrick was especially reverent with his wedding watch. 

Every morning, Patrick would slip it on last, after he’d showered and dressed but before he kissed David goodbye to head into the store early. And every night, before getting ready for bed, he gently placed it on the ceramic dish on his nightstand that he saved only for the watch and his wedding ring. 

When David saw Patrick take it off while they were in the store once, he asked what he was doing. Patrick replied simply, “I need to move some boxes in the back and I don’t want it to get scratched.” David smiled so hard his cheeks hurt for an hour after that.

One night, one average, ordinary night, they were in the kitchen together, cleaning up after a dinner they’d tiredly put together after a long day at work. Patrick was at the sink with his sleeves rolled up, one hand already holding the dish sponge and running it under the hot water.

“David?” Patrick asked, turning his body slightly to face his husband. 

“Hmm?”

“Could you take my watch off me please?” 

David abandoned the condiments he was putting back into the cabinet and faced Patrick. “It’s waterproof, honey.” 

“I know, I just, you know, wanna take care of it.”

David smiled and sidled over. He delicately unbuckled the strap and let the watch fall from Patrick’s wrist into his hand. He closed his fingers around it, smiling at the residual warmth in the metal from the skin of Patrick’s arm. David brought Patrick’s wrist to his lips and pressed two soft kisses into the tender skin on the inside of it. He noticed a blush creeping its way up Patrick’s neck and the smile that his husband was trying so hard to swallow. David kissed Patrick’s red-tinged cheek then and glided away, leaving his husband to finish the dishes as he put Patrick’s watch in the ceramic dish on the nightstand. 

He stared at it a bit longer after he set it down, admiring how the silver bezel caught the light of the lamp it sat under, how the hands ticked away, signalling the passage of seconds. He smiled down at it. It didn’t matter that he was spending this small pocket of time away from his husband, watching seconds tick by. He knew, better than anything, that they had all the time in the world to spend together.

**Author's Note:**

> [This](https://cdn2.jomashop.com/media/catalog/product/p/r/pre-owned-cartier-ballon-bleu-automatic-silver-dial-mens-watch-w69016z4.jpg) is the watch David gives to Patrick. It's a Cartier Ballon Bleu and is, in my opinion, the most classic and most beautiful watch ever. 
> 
> [Here](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/574813771978244106/601792418756427786/Screen_Shot_2019-07-19_at_10.50.38_AM.png) [are](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/574813771978244106/601792436284555294/Screen_Shot_2019-07-19_at_11.04.55_AM.png) [some](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/574813771978244106/601792422439157769/Screen_Shot_2019-07-19_at_10.51.27_AM.png) pictures of Noah wearing a watch in "Three Inches" and [here](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/574813771978244106/601801069655359490/image0.jpg) is one of baby Noah wearing a watch in "Strange Days at Blake Holsey High." Pics courtesy of Claire and Turb :)
> 
> I'm [@noahnicholasreid](https://noahnicholasreid.tumblr.com) on Tumblr if you want to come scream in my inbox about how much watch wearer energy Patrick Brewer has!


End file.
